Why? Because the world is confused about God to the point of automatic rejection of faith. Have a look at these comments from nonbelievers:
"If god loves us, why did he create evil and free will if he knew it would cause harm to us?"(Yahoo Answers)
"There's no god. If the christian god were real, it should be hanged for crimes against humanity."(Yahoo Answers)
"seriously theists. if god's so f****** brilliant, why doesn't he just eliminate evil?"(YouTube)
(YouTube)The above opinions are inevitable observations for any thinking non-believer who has been taught a theology about an Omnipotent being who can do anything, and who can see the entire future yet created an evil world. The conclusion is inescapable. If God foresaw this world with the sin, death, and evil, he must have wanted it this way if he created it.
As logical reasoning goes, such a being does not seem very worthy of our worship. I know some of you may be thinking, "But God is good," and of course it is true. But we have faith to tell us this fact. Nonbelievers lack faith, and they are blocked from getting it by this huge wall created by bad theology.
Open Theism breaks down this wall.
With the simple understanding that the future is open, we can respond to almost any question about evil, freewill, and God.
We can explain that God created things in balance. Evil, in its simplest form, is unbalance. God never foresaw, nor intended for imbalance to occur. At the same time, he gave us freewill - this freewill allows for us to create our own balance, with God as the ultimate example of perfect balance. Any evil, aka imbalance, is our own doing.
So why give us freewill? A big part of the balance of life is healthy love. In order for us to experience love both between each other and God we must possess the ability to tilt the scales towards love, or towards hate. Otherwise our love is false and forced.
Man will eternally be free. If God ever stopped evil totally, at that point freewill will be stripped, and he would stop showing us love by letting us chose who and what to love. Even in heaven, even in hell, choices made in freedom will define who we are. And our choices are ours alone, God neither foresaw them, allowed them, nor caused them.
Freewill is impossible with a future that has been predestined. If the future exists to God, he must have created it, therefore predestining everything that happens in it. But by saying the future is open, and removing predestination completely, unbelievers can at least drop this issue they have with God.
The next time they watch the news and see a killing, they cannot blame God. God didn't create the killing, it wasn't his idea eons ago, and he didn't approve it. The future was open to God at creation. He didn't know evil would happen. They cannot blame God for giving us freewill, because freewill is required to give and receive true love (even though there is a gamble that someone could hate you, freedom to love offers the most genuine love).
Instead of God creating evil, he gave us a way to make our own balance, and when we get out of balance and can't get back in, He sent his son, Jesus, to die so he might help those who need their scales tipped back in place. But even that restoration of balance is a freewill choice.
This also opens the door for even more passion for God. The verse that reads, "Jesus wept," has more meaning! God can feel pain, he can morn over the lost. He can have true patience. Why? Because he didn't cause evil, he is offended by it. Even though he is strong enough to stop it, and strip away all of our freewill, he loves us enough to let us keep it.
Try telling your doubting friends that God didn't foresee the evil of this world when he created it. But even though he didn't see it happening exactly as it did, he had a plan to save it. He gave us standards to help show us the way. Most of all, encourage them to have faith.
Hear the difference an Open Theist Witness has on an Atheist.
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